The El Paso Shooting Revived the Free Speech Debate. Europe Has Limits.
Even in the United States, First Amendment protections, while vast, are not without any restriction. Journalists, for instance, must routinely work within the bounds of libel and defamation laws and, as the famous example goes, people are not necessarily free to falsely yell “fire” in a crowded theater.
A constitutional, but limited, right
Free speech is constitutionally enshrined in both Germany and France, as it is in the United States. But there is an important difference.
“The big nuance between the First Amendment and the European texts is that the European texts allow for possible limitations” on speech, said Emmanuel Pierrat, a French lawyer who specializes in publishing and free speech issues.
TANIKO Madagascar 